Philippe Petain

Philippe Petain (24 April 1856-23 July 1951) was Prime Minister of France from 16 June 1940 to 17 April 1942, succeeding Paul Reynaud and preceding Pierre Laval, and Chief of the French State (President of France) from 11 July 1940 to 20 August 1944, succeeding Albert Lebrun and preceding Charles de Gaulle. Petain became a war hero and a Marshal of France for his service in World War I and the Rif War, only to head a Nazi collaborationist government in southern France during World War II. He died in French captivity in 1951.

Biography
Philippe Petain was born in Cauchy-a-la-Tour, France in 1856 and was educated at a Dominican college, and he graduated from the Saint-Cyr Military Academy and was commissioned into the French Army infantry in 1878. He was promoted to colonel in1 912, and rose rapidly during World War I, becoming general in 1915 and commander of the French 2nd Army. He became a national hero as the defender of Verdun from 1916 to 1917, and became Commander-in-Chief of the French army in May 1917. He fought successfully against Abd el-Krim, and served as inspector-general of the army from 1922 to 1931. He was Minister of Defense in 1934 and subsequently retired, but in 1939 was appointed ambassador to Spain. He was recalled to serve as Deputy to Prime Minister Paul Reynaud in May 1940, and became the last Prime Minister of the French Third Republic on 17 June 1940 following Reynaud's refusal to sue for peace against the Germans. Petain concluded an armistice with the Germans which left him in control of two-fifths of French territory, which he proceded to govern from the spa town of Vichy. On 10 July 1940, the National Assembly transferred to him all executive and legislative powers. Initially, he hoped to gain concessions from Germany in return for his collaboration, such as the return of French prisoners of war. He was also eager to secure for France a special place in the German world order which he believed to be the inevitable consequence of the war. As Germany became increasingly defensive against the Allies, he hoped that France would take a pivotal role in negotiating a compromise peace. He was forced by the Germans to retreat across the Rhine to Sigmaringen in 1944, and surrendered to the French authorities in April 1945. He was sentenced to death, though the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The role of Petain in the Vichy regime had been very controversial. He was the octogenarian leader who gave the government its credibility, bbut there is general agreement that some of his deputies, notably Pierre Laval, were the main culprits of Vichy. At the same time, rather than being an unpolitical patriot who stepped in to save his country, he had been dallying with shady right-wing figures for years in order to win political power. Through giving credence to the regime, he was greatly responsible, amongst others, for his government's persecution of Jews and the sending of French people to forced labor in Germany.